OT-ish: "Powerwall" - will change the way the world uses energy

Or I could mention it here as a point for discussion.

Reply to
Davey
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In message , Davey writes

There are some at the local Park and Ride stop. And I've seen them around in a few other car parks and other places.

Reply to
Chris French

I saw one last weekend at a services on the M1. It could cope witn 2 cars at once. There seemed to be two different connectors, on single phase and one 3 phase.

Reply to
charles

Try reading up about them. They've been sued for the battery going so flat it had to be replaced. Not covered by warranty.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

But not at the same time. You can only get that sort of range by driving it like a Pious. With a very timid driver.

Try starting with a Ferrari with a full tank of petrol and a fully charged Tesla. Now get the Tesla to try and keep up with an enthusiastically driven one. And see what the range actually is. I've heard under 30 miles.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

That might be happening, but I heard it would take until 2021 to make enough for 1 extra space mission if we started last year.

It also costs much more to make it today than it did to make the original stock pile that's almost run out, and that's probably more than most space research programmes are likely to be able to afford.

Reply to
Andrew Gabriel

Isn't it just conventional battery technology packaged in a different way? The cost effectiveness will depend on the initial cost of the device (£3K) and how long before you have to replace it (a 1000 charge/discharge cycles in 3 years?)

I see no quoted figures for efficiency.

The success of the project seems to be dependant on _Government_ subsidies for green energy and the falling price of Lithium. In the UK there are no Government subsidies - just the 15% green/social tax on all our gas/electricity bills.

Reply to
alan_m

Or just buy it from Syria

Reply to
alan_m

But the cost will not be pennies for the charge. When there are a million charging points the Government may think its a good way of raising tax income.

But some battery technologies are not practically scalable. I guess there must have been a fortune spent researching batteries for hand help portable equipment but so far they haven't found anything that can run a modern smart phone for more than a day or two per charge.

Reply to
alan_m

But it's not storing it in the sense of being able to convert it back to usable electricity easily and efficiently - so it doesn't compare with a battery and inverter.

Reply to
Roger Mills

Just how do panels *store* electricity?

Reply to
Roger Mills

Is that some sort of Pope-mobile?

Reply to
Roger Mills

Probably in the battery this thread is about.

Reply to
dennis

Not a chance, you watch. For the same reason you don?t have one, the price.

Reply to
Simon Brown

If it has enough range. Working today, 120 mile round trip and that is one of the closer locations. For a single day a 300 mile round trip is about my limit.

A colleague has a hybrid, he's always blagging energy from the generator. How "green" is that? Wouldn't it be better to burn the diesel in the car?

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

They are popping up, I think I've seen one actually being used. Once.

Trouble is stopping for a hour every 100 miles instead of 10 mins every 550+ isn't very convenient.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

It's not.

Or as I've said before at the bottom of each windmill. Makes them dispatchable and thus able to sell at premium prices. Take away the subsidies and let them prove their economic case.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

In essence yes, though the batteries aren't the same as in the cars apparently, the chemistry has been tweaked to suit this application (the car batteries are more suited to lots of cycling).

There is a 10 year battery warranty apparently

I guess they are aiming for cheaper batteries in the future, Tesla are building a big factory, what they call a Gigafctory in Nevada to produce batteries. Which they claim will reduce the cost by 30%

Consumer applications in the uk are a bit limited I think. I imagine the early customers will be people with solar systems (which I imagine makes more sense in California or where ever)

Reply to
Chris French

Sure, I don't imagine an electric car would suit your usage, but lots of people have regular, predictable commutes, of fairly short distances (average car commuting distance is about 10 miles IIRC).. so an electric car could well be suited to those people e.g. as second family car.

Reply to
Chris French

No, indeed not, which is obviously going to limit the appeal of electric vehicles :-) Though Tesla have fast charging stations which can give 50% charge is about 20 mins.

It will be interesting to see what sort of real range the upcoming Tesla Model 3 has (the first Tesla aimed at a more mass market car)

Reply to
Chris French

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